PHIL 2200 - Existentialism

Hours: 3
Existentialism is a philosophical worldview that asks all of us to confront deep and potentially troubling questions about the way we live our lives. Is freedom as valuable as many of us think it is? Are we in denial about our own mortality? Are we avoiding our responsibility for our lives when we blame our upbringing, our culture, our biology, or our psychology for the way we behave or the beliefs that we have? Are our relationships with other people poisoned by our competing value sets? If there is no transcendent set of values, how can we find meaning in our lives? These and other questions set the agenda for Existentialism, a philosophical worldview that flourished in Europe in the middle of the 20th Century, but which has roots in the 19th Century. We will read philosophical essays, but also novels, short stories, and plays. Themes to be addressed include: the rejection of human nature, existentialist approaches to God and religion, existentialist freedom, the nature of the self, the relationship between the self and others, as well as existentialist ethics.
Notes: Cross-listed with INST 2207.

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PHIL 2200 - Existentialism